My Airline uses flight plans called LIDO which calculate the cheapest route based on winds and other factors. Many time "Direct" is not the fastest or cheapest. The example you gave is ann extreme example of this.

I stumbled onto this one Fri morning the 4th, when checking out the ABQ action. On closer look at all west bound traffic, across TX, NM and other states, they were really bucking a strong headwind, while east bound traffic has been whistling along, over 500kts. I flew HP ATL-PHX in Dec 2002 and it took us over 5hrs to complete the trip due to headwinds. All the way across TX it was like riding on buckboard roads.